Hamilton County officials are violating the Ohio Constitution by spending hundreds of millions of tax dollars on a football stadium for a private business, attorney Robert Manley told a Hamilton County court Monday.
Mr. Manley, representing Caruso Inc. and S&C Properties, began building his case that the county can't use eminent domain to take his clients' riverfront property because a football stadium is not a ''public use.''
Eminent domain is a government's right to take property for public use with appropriate compensation.
Caruso, a produce firm, and S&C, which operates a parking lot, are the only businesses to wage such an aggressive fight against the county.
Two others, Caddy's Complex and Flanagan's Landing, went to court to have a jury determine the values of their property.
Mr. Manley is calling top county and team officials as witnesses to make his point. County Administrator David Krings and county Commissioners Bob Bedinghaus and Tom Neyer Jr. testified Monday.
Bengals General Manager Mike Brown tried to fight Mr. Manley's subpoena. But Visiting Judge Richard Cole, who was assigned to common pleas court to hear the land cases, ruled that Mr. Brown must testify. He is expected to take the stand Friday.
Andrew Patton, who is representing Hamilton County, argues that the Ohio Constitution doesn't prohibit what county commissioners are doing for the Bengals.
Commissioners have agreed to build a $400.3 million stadium complex for the team. The county will own the stadium, and the team will pay $11.7 million in rent during its 25-year lease.
If the county were building the stadium and then giving it to the team, Mr. Patton said, ''that would be a big problem. Or if we loaned money directly to the Bengals.''
But with question after question, Mr. Manley tried to show that taxpayers are getting a deal that violates the state's constitution.
''All of this may be OK if the Bengals were paying enough rent to repay the taxpayers,'' Mr. Manley said during his opening statement.
''The county is investing taxpayers' money to make the Bengals richer,'' he added, saying this was the type of ''plunder'' the state constitution was designed to avoid.
Mr. Manley questioned the legality of the half-cent sales tax increase voters approved in 1996 to pay for stadium construction because the ballot language made no reference to sports stadiums. ''This is outright public dishonesty,'' he said.
Mr. Patton said Mr. Manley will have to prove that commissioners abused their discretion in signing a stadium deal with the Bengals, not simply that it wasn't a great deal.
''One can always second-guess and criticize any decision,'' Mr. Patton said. ''Error is not abuse of discretion.''
If Judge Cole rules the county has the right to take the Caruso and S&C properties, a separate trial likely will determine how much the county will have to pay each.
The county has offered Caruso $1.4 million. Caruso has asked for between $10 million and $12.3 million, according to court documents. The county has offered S&C $1.1 million, but S&C wanted $1.5 million, court documents show.
